Insurers Take Satisfaction Hit on Sandy Claims: J.D. Power

While overall satisfaction with property claims is stable, policyholders were notably less satisfied with more complex Sandy claims.

Overall claimant satisfaction with the handling of Superstorm Sandy property claims has declined "substantially" on J.D. Power & Associates' 1,000-point scale, the customer research firm reported today with the release of its 2014 Property Claims Satisfaction Survey -- Wave 1.

The survey of 2,517 homeowners saw satisfaction with Sandy-releated claims drop 20 points compared with a previous study, the company says. However, overall satisfaction with all property claims during the current wave of the study remains stable at 832.

"Since we wait until the conclusion of each claim to survey the customer, the complexity of the Superstorm Sandy claims in this wave has increased from the last reporting period," said Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power, in a statement. Initially, "Property claims related to Superstorm Sandy were primarily for items damaged in the yard, and the settlement process was expedient. The current wave study findings include more complex Superstorm Sandy property claims being processed for the structure of the home."

The study measures satisfaction with the claims experience among insurance customers who filed a claim for damages covered under their homeowners policy by examining: settlement; first notice of loss; estimation process; service interaction; and repair process. The average settlement amount increased to $10,205 from $5,517 in the previous period. An increase in the number of claims related to damage to the exterior of the house (71% vs. 65%) contributes to the higher settlement figures, J.D. Power says.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio

It seems to me that the stats for this study need a big asterisk -- I'm not saying the Sandy-related disastisfaction isn't legitmate (at least in some cases), but couldn't it be expected that with such a huge disaster affecting so many people and businesses there is going to be a larger-than-normal percentage of disatisfied/unhappy customers, even if insurers are performing at the absolute top of their game, claims processing-wise? JD Power research is very insightful but in this instance I don't think the results are as meaningful as they would be if they really drilled into the reasons Sandy-affected claimants are unhappy. Or did 2 different studies, one for Sandy-affected claimants, and one for everyone else.